Alesha Dixon has revealed that she chose to keep her pregnancy a secret because of the amount of attention she received after her previous marriage to rapper MC Harvey broke down.
The Britain’s Got Talent star welcomed her first child into the world in 2013 with boyfriend Azuka Ononye – a daughter called Azura Sienna – but kept it all pretty much under wraps for much of her pregnancy.
She also spent a few years dating Azuka before revealing they were an item, following the major fall-out with MC Harvey after he cheated on her.
Alesha told the Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine: “My partner knew, and my mum. But I didn’t tell anyone else in the family.
“No one at Britain’s Got Talent knew – although they must have suspected because my dresses had to be altered every week.
“And my boobs got huge! Everyone must have thought I’d had a boob job. I kept it a secret until I was six months pregnant.”
She revealed that her BGT co-star Amanda Holden had an inkling that she was expecting, though.
And that for years having to keep her romance with Azuka a secret led to her colleagues teasing her for being single.
She said: “It was! And on BGT I was always teased about being the single one. Simon Cowell was always trying to fix me up with some of the contestants, not having a clue what was really going on.
“Amanda Holden knew, though. She kept it a secret. She also guessed that I was pregnant.
“I remember her giving me a present – a little outfit – with a note saying, ‘If I’m wrong, forget about this’, but she wasn’t. She was right.”
Alesha – who is fronting ITV’s new celebrity show Dance Dance Dance – and MC Harvey’s marriage came to an end in 2006 after he cheated on her with singer Javine Hylton, and the experience is why the former Mis-Teeq star chose to keep her pregnancy and relationship out of the public eye for so long.
She said: “When that’s happened, you don’t want to be seen with the next person a month later.
“I wanted time to build a foundation, for it to be a relationship that would be taken seriously.”